Wood delights Jackson with NZ visit

Elijah
Wood has revealed how he made a secret visit to New Zealand to
surprise Peter Jackson on the set of King Kong.

Wood
planned the trip for a bit of fun, but the actor who played hobbit
Frodo Baggins in Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was surprised
just how emotional he was when he arrived at the Kiwi director's
film studio in Wellington.

The studio
was the same facility where Lord of the Rings was shot and Jackson
had recruited most of the Rings crew for King Kong, many who were
close to Wood after his 18 months in New Zealand.

"I was
actually so surprised about how overwhelmed I was because I was
walking on the same stage that we used with the same crew," Wood,
while promoting his new film, Everything is Illuminated, told
reporters in Los Angeles.

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"It was
amazing and great to go back.

"It will
always be such a huge part of my life, that country and the
people."

The
surprise visit was a spur of the moment trip for Wood as he was in
Sydney for two days to do some voice work for his new animated
film, Happy Feet.

"I was
like, 'Well, I'm going to be down there for two days. I may as well
get a flight over to Wellington and spend a week in
Wellington'.

"The
timing of it was hilarious because I got an email from Philippa
Boyens, one of the writers on Rings and Kong.

"She was
like 'I haven't heard from you for so long. God it would be great
if you could come out and visit'.

"And, of
course, at that very moment I was planning on taking this trip and
I said 'Funny you should email me because I'm coming out'.

"She
freaked out and said 'I'm not going to tell anyone'."Boyens did end
up on telling Jackson and his Rings producer wife, Fran Walsh, but
the rest of the Kong crew were left in the dark.

"Philippa
went on to the stage and asked Carolynne Cunningham, who was the
first assistant director (AD) and first AD on Kong, if she could
bring a visitor on set and she was like 'Yeah, yeah'," Wood
said.

"She was
busy and couldn't care less.

"Then I
walked on the stage and the reaction from Carolynne was utter
confusion and emotion. It was so amazing."

Wood had
planned, with two other Hobbits - Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan -
to make cameos in Jackson's big budget adventure film about the
giant ape, but the actors' schedules ended up ruling it out.

"I think
early on we had conceived of maybe getting the Hobbits out there -
Billy, Dom and myself - to try and do some kind of cameo," Wood
said.

"Get
stomped on or something or maybe even have us dressed as Hobbits
way in the background, but we never got to do it because Dom was
super busy on Lost and Billy has been working, so we couldn't
co-ordinate schedules to do it."

Everything
is Illuminated is a big change from Lord of the Rings in almost
every aspect, from the small budget, film location in the Czech
Republic to the Coke bottle glasses Wood's character, Jonathon
Safran-Foer, wears.

Safran-Foer is a young Jewish American who travels to the Ukraine
to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War
II.

Wood, 24,
said the journey Safran-Foer takes reminds him of his life-changing
decision to travel to New Zealand to make the Lord of the Rings
films.

"I left
home at 18 and lived in New Zealand for 18 months on my own and it
was an incredible learning experience and growing experience," Wood
said.

"It was
the first time I had really lived as an adult in my life on my own
outside of my comfort zone. It told me a lot about who I am and my
life."